Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

HI Mike :-) I learned a lot by riding
bareback, can't do it for long, like 20 minutes trotting though :-), maybe
you could try that,and I hate to say it...........................get back
to an arena and a coach you like!
I started taking lessons with my neighbur
who is a dressage coach about 9 years ago, my family couldn't understand
WHY I would pay so much money for "lessons" after riding for
15 years on my own, well, I wanted to learn to ride propely & balanced
, and I admit it wasn't easy, I had to "unlearn" a lot of stuff
but mostly I HATED riding in an arena for an hour, as I have the attention
span of a flea my mind would wander after a few minutes ( kind of like
grade 12 math :-)) and I would spend a lot of that hour thinking about
how much I hated arena's.........................ah well I perservered,
I still take 2 months of lessons every year. I also learned a lot from
a  centered riding clinic I went to, if you can find a instructor
who does centered riding  grab her!!:-)
The great  thing about long distance
riders is we get LOTS of saddle time to practice , you will improve really
quickly I am sure.:-)  
Good luck!!:-)
Chrystal

P.S> Aren't you the person who had
the really fast horse at the end of a ride awhile ago?? Lessons will help
you STOP her and get her under control.:-) If that is you I was thinking
at the time reading all the posts about how she is a seasoned competitor
and how you'll never get her to slow down that that horse needed some time
in an arena to learn to listen and  stop, my horse Miss.T that I got
4 years ago as an 8 yr old had two speeds walk, and gallop out of control,
I actually pulled her into a tree to stop her once ( she stopped when she
hit the tree:-() I tried so many bits on her...............nothing worked
but work in the arena to get her under control............ anyway she is
so well behaved now that I tell my dressage coach    Miss.T is
toooo boring, time to trade her in:-) ( I would never do that Miss is the
love of my life) Heather my coach just looks at me in dibelief she LOVES
Miss T now, hated her the first year when MissT regularly tried to run
her over in the arena in her out of control gallop.:-) Luckily MIiss T
still dumps me once or twice a year to prove she isn't THAT perfect!:-)